At a information convention Thursday, Mayor Karen Bass made a startling declare.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers had appeared at a homeless shelter that day, amongst different delicate places in Los Angeles, she mentioned.
However what truly occurred on the Whitsett West Tiny Dwelling Village in North Hollywood stays murky. The shifting narratives mirror the nervousness of Angelenos amid ICE raids focusing on immigrants at Dwelling Depots, church buildings and retail facilities.
In L.A., a “sanctuary metropolis” the place native officers don’t take part in federal immigration enforcement, tensions with the federal authorities are at an all-time excessive. After some protests towards the raids turned violent, the Trump administration known as within the Nationwide Guard and the U.S. Marines.
With federal officers maintaining town at the hours of darkness on immigration enforcement actions, Metropolis Council members and the mayor generally depend on the rumor mill.
ICE’s father or mother company, the Division of Homeland Safety, shortly responded to Bass’ feedback, saying they have been “false.”
“[ICE] shouldn’t be in homeless shelters,” the company wrote on X. “This rhetoric from [the mayor] and California politicians demonizes the courageous women and men of regulation enforcement.”
The Whitsett West Tiny Dwelling Village, which is on metropolis property and is run by the nonprofit Hope the Mission, has beds for about 150 individuals in shed-like constructions off the 170 Freeway close to Whitsett Avenue and Saticoy Avenue.
In line with Laura Harwood, Hope the Mission’s deputy chief program officer, individuals in a automobile tried to get entry to the tiny house village on Thursday afternoon, telling safety guards that they have been Americans who needed to see how their taxpayer {dollars} have been getting used. The guards didn’t admit the guests, who have been sporting civilian garments.
“It is a actually uncommon scenario. This actually doesn’t occur,” Harwood mentioned.
Different staff noticed some males trying into the advanced from totally different sides and taking footage.
A employee on the tiny house village, who requested anonymity as a result of he has members of the family who’re undocumented, advised The Occasions that he was getting back from lunch when he noticed two DHS SUVs with tinted home windows down the block.
Tiny house staffers have been involved sufficient that they reached out to Metropolis Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who got here to the advanced.
“We acquired studies that some ICE brokers have been round within the space viewing the placement from each the entrance and the bottom entryways,” Nazarian mentioned on Instagram.
Nazarian mentioned that immigration brokers showing on the tiny house village can be a “worry mongering” tactic.
The focusing on of interim homeless housing may dissuade individuals from transferring off the road, or push these in shelters to depart out of worry, mentioned Rowan Vansleve, Hope the Mission’s president.
“Final Thursday, ICE entered our metropolis, and provoked town, by chasing individuals by means of Dwelling Depots and automobile washes and displaying up at colleges. And right now, displaying up at emergency rooms and homeless shelters,” Bass mentioned on the Thursday press convention.
Bass’ group confirmed to The Occasions that she was referring to the incident on the Whitsett West Tiny Dwelling Village.
Metropolis Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez mentioned that neighborhood organizations and native elected officers have been sorting by means of studies of DHS sightings to see if they’re credible.
“Now we have seen conditions the place individuals say federal brokers are right here, after which when somebody goes, it seems they have been by no means there or have been gone an hour in the past,” Hernandez mentioned.
